Trump orders administration to evaluate potential of ‘National Digital Asset Stockpile’

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that his administration will evaluate whether to create a “national stockpile of digital assets” — making good on its promise to support the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

However, his executive order stopped short of directly creating a strategic reserve of bitcoin, as some cryptocurrency advocates had hoped.

Bitcoin’s price rose briefly on the news, but fell to daily lows as traders weighed the move.

The idea of ​​a strategic reserve of digital currencies like Bitcoin has long been floated in cryptocurrency circles, but gained traction this summer, when Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, I discussed it At the annual Bitcoin conference.

Trump confirmed his intention to create a reserve In an interview with CNBC in DecemberPointing out that the United States should be a leader in cryptocurrency technology, especially for China.

Proponents have called for the creation of a reserve on the grounds that bitcoin is the new “digital gold.” Just as the United States has gold reserves, cryptocurrency advocates say, it should have bitcoin, too.

“I think the world is moving toward a bitcoin standard for money,” Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency group Coinbase, said this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. According to Yahoo News. “Any government that holds gold should also hold bitcoin in reserve.”

Hours before Trump’s order on Thursday, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., a longtime Bitcoin advocate, issued a statement upon her confirmation as chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, calling for the creation of a strategic reserve for Bitcoin, which he said would… “It will strengthen the US dollar” and maintain the US’s position as a financial innovator.

During his presidential campaign, Trump turned heavily to the cryptocurrency community, which eventually became his largest donor group.

Along the way, he promised to make the United States “the cryptocurrency capital of the world,” and said during his election campaign that he would roll back the Biden-era restrictions and restrictions on cryptocurrency activity.

Just before Trump took office, questions were raised about the extent to which he intended to directly benefit from pro-crypto measures. Last Friday, it launched its own digital token, $TRUMP. Although the token has no intrinsic value as a “memecoin,” its price rose rapidly as investors quickly viewed it as a way to track the success of the Trump administration. However, less than 48 hours later, First Lady Melania Trump issued her own coin, angering a large number of people in the cryptocurrency community, including former Trump supporters, To criticize launches as a means of personal gain From their positions.

When it comes to conflicts of interest, Trump is in largely uncharted territory. It’s not clear if he owns any bitcoin directly — though Vice President J.D. Vance owns $250,000 to $500,000 worth, according to disclosure forms. Trump voluntarily issued an ethics document Just before taking office he said he would limit his involvement in the Trump Organization while in office.

Also in Thursday’s order, Trump backed down Biden administration directives To look for an American digital currency, often called a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Like these coins It has been adopted and researched by some governments around the worldbut it has also been viewed with scrutiny and skepticism by some who cite privacy and surveillance concerns.

Trump’s order, which said central bank digital currencies “threaten the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and sovereignty of the United States,” prohibits the creation, issuance, or trading of central bank digital currencies in the United States.